Progressive politics and where they go from here

[DevoHusker]

 

 

[RedDenver]

 

[Danny Bateman]

Good win for Markey last night! I was pulling for him. It was unclear what rationale Kennedy had for primarying him, other than being a Kennedy.

 

Kind of a mixed bag for progressives last night, though. Richard Neal's progressive challenger lost pretty handily in MA-01 and the progressives crowded each other out in the race for Kennedy's old house seat, which was won by a former Republican.

[RedDenver]

Markey won convincingly too. 11% margin: https://apps.npr.org/elections20-primaries/states/MA.html

 

23 minutes ago, Danny Bateman said:

Good win for Markey last night! I was pulling for him. It was unclear what rationale Kennedy had for primarying him, other than being a Kennedy.

 

Kind of a mixed bag for progressives last night, though. Richard Neal's progressive challenger lost pretty handily in MA-01 and the progressives crowded each other out in the race for Kennedy's old house seat, which was won by a former Republican.

Agreed. "Progressives" aren't a coordinated group though like the Dem establishment, so there's going to be issues like crowding out unless a unified group (e.g. Justice Democrats) can get progressives to act in coordination.

[knapplc]

11 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Markey won convincingly too. 11% margin: https://apps.npr.org/elections20-primaries/states/MA.html

 

Agreed. "Progressives" aren't a coordinated group though like the Dem establishment, so there's going to be issues like crowding out unless a unified group (e.g. Justice Democrats) can get progressives to act in coordination.

 

Which is a bit scary, because the Dems aren't even as well-coordinated as the Republicans. 

 

Progressives need to get a solid leader who can take them into the next decade or so. Really present a consistent message and teach people that there's another way.

[Ratt Mhule]

18 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Markey won convincingly too. 11% margin: https://apps.npr.org/elections20-primaries/states/MA.html

 

Agreed. "Progressives" aren't a coordinated group though like the Dem establishment, so there's going to be issues like crowding out unless a unified group (e.g. Justice Democrats) can get progressives to act in coordination.

Thats what happened in the Nebraska senate primary race. Two progressives split the vote and if the woman who got 2nd place had all the progressive votes she would have beat Janicek or whatever his name is pretty handily. We need to get on the same page like the corporatists do. 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Progressives tend to appeal to the moral high ground; speaking for voiceless people facing needless oppression, against tyranny and wealth inequity, for science and for the Earth itself. As well they should. But it tends to get them labelled as hopeless dreamers, hippies and weaklings by the conservative forces, and more than a few Democrats.

 

But progressives actually have a strong economic story, and logic that a true conservative should appreciate. Run the numbers and many of these "socialist giveaways" will have a huge economic return for capitalist enterprises. If detractors can get past the short term sacrifice and selective hatred of government intervention, the long term benefit of a better educated, healthier, and financially protected public is as monetary as it is just. In the case of the environment, we can't afford NOT to go green as soon as possible. 

 

Sanders and Warren actually do provide some of the numbers and strategies on their websites, but no one goes digging for them. Many just do a cold stop on Socialism, and frankly some Progressives aren't keen to mollify the 1% — social justice should be reason enough.

 

But the person who can make the surprisingly pragmatic case for Democratic Socialism could bring these solutions into the mainstream. 

[Guy Chamberlin]

During the last midterms, Nancy Pelosi put her foot down: the DNC would blackball any candidate or campaign manager who ran a primary against an incumbent Democrat. 

 

This year she endorsed empty suit Joe Kennedy in his challenge to incumbent Ed Markey, a likable progressive Democrat.

 

There are not many members of the current Democratic leadership I'll miss. 

[RedDenver]

3 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

During the last midterms, Nancy Pelosi put her foot down: the DNC would blackball any candidate or campaign manager who ran a primary against an incumbent Democrat. 

 

This year she endorsed empty suit Joe Kennedy in his challenge to incumbent Ed Markey, a likable progressive Democrat.

 

There are not many members of the current Democratic leadership I'll miss. 

This is part of why "You have to vote Dem to defeat the Repubs" rings hollow. The duplicity of the Dem establishment in their own primaries is a major reason why so many people that might have voted Dem are checking out of politics.

[RedDenver]

6 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

During the last midterms, Nancy Pelosi put her foot down: the DNC would blackball any candidate or campaign manager who ran a primary against an incumbent Democrat. 

 

This year she endorsed empty suit Joe Kennedy in his challenge to incumbent Ed Markey, a likable progressive Democrat.

 

There are not many members of the current Democratic leadership I'll miss. 

To your point:

 

[commando]

wait...wait..wait....trump is telling everyone that biden is the lap dog for the radical progressives.  as far as i can tell the progressives hate Biden almost as much as they hate trump....heck...i believe some progressives prefer trump to biden.

[teachercd]

15 minutes ago, commando said:

wait...wait..wait....trump is telling everyone that biden is the lap dog for the radical progressives.  as far as i can tell the progressives hate Biden almost as much as they hate trump....heck...i believe some progressives prefer trump to biden.

I think you are right.

[Guy Chamberlin]

5 hours ago, commando said:

wait...wait..wait....trump is telling everyone that biden is the lap dog for the radical progressives.  as far as i can tell the progressives hate Biden almost as much as they hate trump....heck...i believe some progressives prefer trump to biden.

 

Theres a lot of frustration that Biden is the face of the Democratic Party in 2020, but that hardly translates into preference for Trump.

[Danny Bateman]

I think what is neat for progressives at this point in time is the potential for what can get done under Biden.

 

No one realistically expects something like Medicare for All or free college to get passed with the composition of Congress being what it is. But it's an undeniable fact that Biden is running on the most progressive platform of all time when viewed in sum. Sure, it's not as progressive as Bernie or Warren's would have been.
 

But with Biden, you have his public perception as a moderate and a bipartisan dealmaker. Trump and co. are doing their damndest to paint Biden as some kind of hapless puppet of the left but no matter how hard they try, it's just not sticking. Biden's been around for too long and his perception is too baked in.

 

As someone very succinctly put it, we can "launder" a lot of progressive policies under a President Biden.

[Guy Chamberlin]

FWIW....there is a Socialist Party in America promoting its socialist agenda. It has around 1,000 members and has already nominated Howie Hawkins as its candidate for President in 2020.

 

One might conclude that the term "socialist!" gets thrown around a tad recklessly in this election.